whats wrong with this picture?

Oval

Oval - the absolute worst name for a bicycle wheel.

I also noticed they have Oval bearings, Oval bars, Oval stems, Oval brakes....

Carbon vs. Aluminum

This may not be a good idea.

Fucking, fuckity fuck fuck fuck you Vuelta USA.

So here's a great idea for a wheel. Let's take some tiny ass washers and put them between the nipple and the rim. Just to make it better, let's make the rim deep dish and have hidden nipples. It will be rad and everyone will love us.

This has got to be one of the dumbest, asinine ideas I have ever seen realized. Zipp uses washers but they actually increase the surface area of the nipple. These little shits only cover the end of the nipple. The only use I can see is to add some flex in the nipple to rim interface. But isn't that what the rounded end of your god damn nipple does. I seriously have no fucking idea what these are for or how the fuck they are supposed to go in the rim. I've tried everything I can think of, any ideas?

Not only are the washers a bad idea, but Vuelta USA can't even get there fucking ERD right. Nope, you were off by a factor of those spokes are way too short. Did you forget to measure the distance from the outer side of the rim to where the nipple actually rests? I thought so. Thank you for wasting my time. I guess next time I know to tell the customer to send your wheels back and try buying something from a wheel company that doesn't have to contact Taiwan to get a fucking ERD on a rim they sell.

And right about now, I think Vuelta USA can go fuck themselves. Anyone interested in sending them hate mail, you can use my name. It's Moose K Nuckler.  Thank you and good night.

3 day weekend penance

You know sometimes you just ask for it....

Have a semi productive day getting bikes fixed and in a happy mood because your Friday is indeed a Friday.

Then a Cervelo p4 rolls in, owner asks can brake pads be changed? sure you need Enve pads to go with you tubular carbon rims...great have them in stock, all is right in the world

then I notice rear shiftier ferrule is f'D! so have our service writer call up customer, and he wants it by Saturday (yay for being in a shop with a service writer if you dont have one I highly recommend you get one!)...




anyways to change pads and one cable, crankset has to be removed, both wheels, and TT bar had to have tape un wrapped to remove housing.... use thin plastic tubing before removing old shifter cable to prevent a full on gang raping of the P4's innards...

Also to note had to cut rear pads to 2/3 the size to fit on the rear brake!

all in all a very big time suck... with 1 hour to close

Designed to fail

The Light Bulb Conspiracy is a documentary that drags us through the annals of time via the idea of planned obsolescence. The name of the film comes from the collusion of light bulb manufacturers to set the burn time of light bulbs to guarantee a steady flow of "need" from the public. It explores the thousands of patents that have been filed that are for longer burning, longer lasting filaments. They even show a light bulb that has been burning in Fire House back east for over 100 years. For the past decade or so they have had web cams watching the bulb. Two of them have had to be replaced.



The idea of planned obsolescence is not a new idea, nor is it an idea that seems to be fading into the sunset as we have increased our knowledge of materials and industrial processes. Quite the contrary, as better, lighter, stronger materials have become available, we have seen a decrease in product life expectancy. Not only have the products become less and less durable, but the season cycle or the idea of the never ending need to have the newest and the best has replaced the consumer's desire to have a product that will last. Why would I want a light bulb that lasts forever?

Some Interesting Cock Pits

Carbon bars on a Mongoose. I don't see this ending well.

Yea, I like my bars rolled all the way forward and the shifters flipped all funny.

Broken Enve Rim

Eight Full Hours of Sleep

Today started with a Fox fork service, including the FIT cartridge. The custy was having lock out issues. I opened it up only to find the machining shavings from manufacturing still inside.

Top cap assembly, you can kind of see the shavings in the compression piston.

Ah, yes, metal shavings make a fork work Awesome!

After determining the fate of this fork, my next task was to fit an entire Di2 cabling system in the butt hole of a Venge.

I was then treated to the site of improper water bottle cage installation.

I promise this wasn't staged...

We then contacted the Newby GMC dealer to see if we could get some warranty pay for the next bike that was way sub-standard for what we paid in the bail out.

And finally, just as I was leaving, some creative cone assembly.

Not bad for eight hours of saving bikes from rape....

My bed time music, for hope for better bikes and solidarity with you all.

Broken Carbon Orbea

Broken Crabon

This was sent in from Sunrise Cyclery.

Broken stuff with a happy ending

I present to you, one broken lock nut. This was extracted from a Bontrager hub while servicing the bearings. I have never seen a lock nut split so perfectly in half before, and under such little pressure. Odd.

The picture probably doesn't really show what's goin' on here, but this is a Trek Madone and that little chip you see in the paint above the Trek logo on the seat stay is in fact a crack that wraps almost all the way around.

Anti Post Warning

Some of my handy work.

A set of Enve All Mountain rims, 32 hole, laced to 240's. A 150mm rear? You ask, yup. These are going on a Demo, in an attempt to make it light...

Broken T-Mobile Frame

Apparently, the person that installed this BB didn't get the memo that 900 ft. lbs was a bit excessive on the torque. The tool you see in my hands is what I like to call "the big guns." It is a 3/4" ratchet mated to an adaptor that brings it down to a 1/2" driver size. perfect for BB's.

What this picture fails to show in any way, shape or form, is that there is a crack that runs from about 5mm under the bottom braze-on boss to about 5mm above the top braze-on boss. And that both are about to pull out of the frame. I got the BB out, but the frame was toast...

Trek Superfly Broken Carbon

These were sent over by Fixie Dave... Thanks,